It was the morning break.
Sandy and Esper were at Ariel's desk. They were watching Selina, who was near the closed back door of the class, listening to a brown-haired boy. With her left hand covering her mouth, the tall girl chuckled at his words, which were too soft for the other girls to hear.
Sandy recognized the boy. She had seen him talk to Connie several times before.
"It's that boy again," Ariel commented, "He's always talking to all the girls."
"Billy Townsend," Esper identified him, "from 9-C."
Ariel looked at her with bespectacled eyes. "How do you know?"
Esper drew herself up proudly. "Well, he's spoken to me before. Quite the flatterer he is, always charming the pretty girls."
"Well, he's never spoken to me before." Ariel pouted.
Esper leaned towards Ariel with a patronizing grin. "Maybe you aren't pretty enough. You should try going for cute instead. Air Blimps are cute." She laughed as she dodged out of the reach of Ariel's claws.
Suddenly, the back door opened. Saki popped in with the whispered plea, "Hide me!"
Selina took the little girl's hand and pulled her into the corner, into the gap between the cupboard and the wall. She gestured Saki to crouch. Then she continued her conversation with the boy. However, Selina started speaking more, to distract Billy from the Asian girl's presence.
The back door opened again. It swung into the classroom to cover Saki's hiding place. Since the Saki was crouching, she could not be seen through the window of the door.
Another little girl appeared at the door. Annie.
Billy literally jumped when he saw her.
Selina blocked the way into the classroom, preventing Annie from entering and checking behind the door.
Annie looked at the brown-haired boy. "Billy, have you seen..."
"Stop there," Selina interrupted her, "He's mine. Go find yourself another boy."
"What?" Annie glared up at Selina.
Selina stared back. "I said leave him. He's mine."
Both girls faced each other for a few moments. Determined though she might be, Annie appeared even smaller next to Selina.
Then the little girl shrank back. "Fine. He's yours." Annie retreated from the classroom.
Selina turned her attention back to Billy. "Now, what were you saying earlier?"
Billy remained staring at the door, which had closed. So Selina rocked back and whispered to him until he was calm enough to take control of the conversation. Soon, he was speaking confidently again.
"Selina's not usually like that," Sandy commented.
"Hmm, well, I guess we all know by now that she can take action if necessary," Esper said.
"Yeah, I wish I can do that too," Ariel said without specifying what 'that' referred to.
"You have to pump up the Air Blimp first and get Billy to notice you," Esper said. She danced away from Ariel's claws.
Distracted by Selina's behavior and her friends' comments, Sandy forgot all about the Asian girl hidden in the corner. She only remembered near the end of the break when Selina let the little girl out. The tall girl spoke to both students from 9-C and sent them off one by one, Billy first.
The bell rang just after Saki had left.
***
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